16 months

We celebrate Christmas on the 24th, so today was just a regular day for us. It was a tough day for me, having slept very little last night, as there were so many pictures. I went to bed at 4:30 am, and was woken up when I usually sleep, just before 9, because of Tammy crying so very hard. It was food time, and Randy and Barbara were feeding them their cereal. Tammy has been crying a lot recently, and right now she does not want to sit in her high chair. She has barely been eating, even when I get her out of the chair. This morning they just let her throw a fit in a chair, and it kept me awake for about an hour, and it was hard listening to her. But Barbara has raised a few kids, and in the end she was able to make her eat. As I have not had such luck with her, I let Barbara feed her today at every meal, at it seems that she got more food in her belly today.

Sammy always lies down for his nap right after breakfast, and he has no problem going to sleep. That way he has the whole bed to himself. When he wakes up, Emmy gets the bed, and Randy wakes me up to give me Tammy to sleep on me, or rather for both of us to sleep. Sometimes it takes a long time to get her to sleep, and she does a lot of crying and moving before she finally calms down and falls asleep.

They usually sleep about 10:30 to 11:30, and we feed them lunch at noon. While they were feeding the little ones, I made lunch for the adults. Tammy was doing the same thing again, just crying and crying and breaking my heart. Once our food was done, I joined them, but she would still not eat, not even my food, once I sat with her eating myself.

I was really tired, and with some other drama going on as well, I ended up lying down by myself after getting their afternoon meal ready and putting it into the fridge. I woke up when Tammy joined me for her afternoon nap. Like I said, Tammy has been really cranky recently, crying a lot, like she's in pain. The diarrhea is still not gone. These past few days, she also cries once she wakes up from her nap, which she didn't use to do. Our friendly cat Brownie seeks to be close to me a lot and often lies down by me when I'm in bed. She was there when Tammy woke up, and the babies are still fascinated by the cat, looking for them and watching them whenever they can. Brownie is a little weary of these energic babies, and doesn't appreciate their fast movements, but as long as I'm there, Brownie will stay and all is good. Tammy enjoyed interacting with the cat after she woke up from her nap.

Both Tammy and Emmy woke up exactly at 4 pm, which is when I would have woken them up anyway, so they'd still be able to fall asleep at bedtime. We had some more fun time playing, and that's often when our Malian kids come over as well. I love watching my Bakary play with them. He plays peek-a-boo with Emmy, who enjoys that game. Jonathan is also good with them, and Patrice is a natural and the babies enjoy being with him.

As food time was approaching, dinner being at 5 pm, I left to turn the faucet on, as the water flows slowly and it takes time to fill up the bathtub. I stayed away from the dinner table, as it would have kept Tammy from eating, and waited for them in the bathtub. By the way, Sammy is now pretty good at picking up food and putting it into his mouth. That's a new skill for him! And he often holds the milk bottle all by himself when I feed him. Way to go, Sammy!

After they were done, Randy then brought them one by one, and that's when the fun started. Sammy just loves the water, moving all his limbs like he's rowing, or backstroking. He just might become an olympic swimmer! Tammy and Emmy also enjoy the water, and especially picking up all the bottles sitting by the bathtub.

Bedtime was hard as usual, with Emmy moving a lot, and Tammy crying. Randy left to put the new TV mount for our Malian children on the wall on their living room, so I was on my own. When he returned, Tammy was still crying, but she refused to drink any milk. But everything ends at some point, and I was able to get my food and get on the computer. After I'm done eating is when I start with the office work, and I sit in our bedroom rather than in my office. Tonight, I was extremely tired, last night having been so short, but some time after midnight it got better, so I'm alright right now, at just after 1 am. However, I know I need to get some sleep tonight. It's alway the battle, choosing between sleep and the work that needs to get done at some point. We have 11 days left in Mali, and some of what I've got to do before leaving is rather time-intensive.